The LoRa Alliance was formed to standardize how devices using the proprietary LoRa radio modulation communicate with networks. The result is LoRaWAN, an open specification covering the MAC layer, device classes, regional frequency plans, security and backend interfaces for roaming between networks. The alliance runs a certification program so that a sensor from one vendor works on any compliant network.
The split matters: LoRa itself is a chip-level technology owned by Semtech, while LoRaWAN is governed by the alliance and implemented by many. For buyers this means a large choice of devices and both public and private network options. The trade-off is that LoRaWAN is optimized for small, infrequent uplinks, so the alliance’s work concentrates on LPWAN use cases rather than high-throughput ones. See LoRaWAN explained.
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